Contents

History[edit]

Discovery of gold[edit]

Bodie began as a mining camp of little note following the discovery of gold in 1859 by a group of prospectors, including W. S. Bodey.[5][7][8] Bodey perished in a blizzard the following November while making a supply trip to Monoville (near present-day Mono City, California), never getting to see the rise of the town that was named after him.[7] According to area pioneer Judge J. G. McClinton, the district's name was changed from "Bodey," "Body," and a few other phonetic variations, to "Bodie," after a painter in the nearby boomtown of Aurora, lettered a sign "Bodie Stables".[9][10]

Gold discovered at Bodie coincided with the discovery of silver at nearby Aurora (thought to be in California, later found to be Nevada), and the distant Comstock Lode beneath Virginia City, Nevada. But while these two towns boomed, interest in Bodie remained lackluster. By 1868 only two companies had built stamp mills at Bodie, and both had failed.[7]

Boom[edit]

Bodie circa 1890

In 1876, the Standard Company discovered a profitable deposit of gold-bearing ore, which transformed Bodie from an isolated mining camp comprising a few prospectors and company employees to a Wild West boomtown. Rich discoveries in the adjacent Bodie Mine during 1878 attracted even more hopeful people.[7] By 1879, Bodie had a population of approximately 5000–7000 people[11][12] and around 2,000 buildings. One idea maintains that in 1880, Bodie was California's second or third largest city,[13] but the U.S. Census of that year disproves the popular tale.[14] Over the years, Bodie's mines produced gold valued at nearly US$34 million.[15]

Bodie boomed from late 1877 through mid- to late 1880.[16] The first newspaper, The Standard Pioneer Journal of Mono County, published its first edition on October 10, 1877. It started out as a weekly, but soon became a thrice-weekly paper.[17] It was also during this time that a telegraph line was built which connected Bodie with Bridgeport and Genoa, Nevada.[17] California and Nevada newspapers predicted Bodie would become the next Comstock Lode.[18][19][20] Men from both states were lured to Bodie by the prospect of another bonanza.[21]

Geography[edit]

A saloon in Bodie

Inside the gymnasium building – 26 August 2012

As a bustling gold mining center, Bodie had the amenities of larger towns, including a Wells Fargo Bank, four volunteer fire companies, a brass band, a railroad, miners' and mechanics' unions, several daily newspapers, and a jail. At its peak, 65 saloons lined Main Street, which was a mile long. Murders, shootouts, barroom brawls, and stagecoach holdups were regular occurrences.[22]

As with other remote mining towns, Bodie had a popular, though clandestine, red light district on the north end of town. From this is told the unsubstantiated story of Rosa May, a prostitute who, in the style of Florence Nightingale, came to the aid of the town menfolk when a serious epidemic struck the town at the height of its boom. She is credited with giving life-saving care to many, but was buried outside the cemetery fence.[23]

Bodie had a Chinatown, the main street of which ran at a right angle to Bodie's Main Street,[17] with several hundred Chinese residents at one point, and included a Taoist temple. Opium dens were plentiful in this area.[17]

On Main Street stands the Miners Union Hall, which was the meeting place for labor unions and an entertainment center that hosted dances, concerts, plays, and school recitals. It now serves as a museum.

Mining town[edit]

The Methodist Church

Bodie had its own gasoline stop. A DodgeGraham sits next to the old gas pumps. Note bullet holes on the old "Shell" signs.

The first signs of decline appeared in 1880 and became obvious towards the end of the year. Promising mining booms in Butte, Montana; Tombstone, Arizona; and Utah lured men away from Bodie.[16] The get-rich-quick, single miners who originally came to the town in the 1870s moved on to these other booms, which eventually turned Bodie into a family-oriented community. Two examples of this settling were the construction of the Methodist Church (which currently stands) and the Roman Catholic Church (burned about 1930) that were both constructed in 1882. Despite the population decline, the mines were flourishing, and in 1881 Bodie's ore production was recorded at a high of $3.1 million.[15] Also in 1881, a narrow-gauge railroad was built called the Bodie Railway & Lumber Company, bringing lumber, cordwood, and mine timbers to the mining district from Mono Mills south of Mono Lake.

During the early 1890s, Bodie enjoyed a short revival seen in technological advancements in the mines that continued to support the town. In 1890, the recently invented cyanide process promised to recover gold and silver from discarded mill tailings and from low-grade ore bodies that had been passed over. In 1892, the Standard Company built its own hydroelectric plant approximately 13 miles (20.9 km) away at Dynamo Pond. The plant developed a maximum of 130 horsepower (97 kW) and 3,530 volts alternating current (AC) to power the company's 20-stamp mill. This pioneering installation marked one of the country's first transmissions of electricity over a long distance.[28]

In 1910, the population was recorded at 698 people, which were predominantly families that decided to stay in Bodie instead of moving on to other prosperous strikes.

Decline[edit]

The first signs of an official decline occurred in 1912 with the printing of the last Bodie newspaper, The Bodie Miner. In a 1913 book titled California tourist guide and handbook: authentic description of routes of travel and points of interest in California, the authors, Wells and Aubrey Drury, described Bodie as a "mining town, which is the center of a large mineral region" and provided reference to two hotels and a railroad operating there.[30] In 1913, the Standard Consolidated Mine closed. Mining profits in 1914 were at a low of $6,821.[15] James S. Cain was buying up everything from the town lots to the mining claims, and reopened the Standard mill to former employees, which resulted in an over $100,000 profit in 1915.[7] However, this financial growth was not in time to stop the town's decline. In 1917, the Bodie Railway was abandoned and its iron tracks were scrapped. The last mine closed in 1942, due to War Production Board order L-208, shutting down all nonessential gold mines in the United States. Mining never resumed.[7][8][31]

The first label of Bodie as a "ghost town" was in 1915.[32] In a time when auto travel was on a rise, many were adventuring into Bodie via automobiles. The San Francisco Chronicle published an article in 1919 to dispute the "ghost town" label.[33] By 1920, Bodie's population was recorded by the US Federal Census at a total of 120 people. Despite the decline, Bodie had permanent residents through most of the 20th century, even after a fire ravaged much of the downtown business district in 1932. A post office operated at Bodie from 1877 to 1942.[5]

Ghost town and park[edit]

In the 1940s, the threat of vandalism faced the ghost town. The Cain family, who owned much of the land the town is situated upon, hired caretakers to protect and to maintain the town's structures.[34] Martin Gianettoni, one of the last three people in Bodie in 1943, was also a caretaker.[35]

Bodie in May 1972

Bodie is now an authentic Wild West ghost town.[6] The town was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961,[4] and in 1962 it became Bodie State Historic Park. A total of 170 buildings remained.[34] Bodie has been named California's official state gold rush ghost town.[36]

Visitors arrive mainly via SR 270, which runs from US 395 near Bridgeport to the west; the last three miles of it is a dirt road. There is also a road to SR 167 near Mono Lake in the south, but this road is extremely rough with more than 10 miles of dirt track in a bad state of repair. The roads to Bodie are usually closed in winter due to heavy snowfall.

Bodie is a popular destination for organized night photography, emphasizing the eerie nature of the park.

Today, Bodie is preserved in a state of arrested decay. Only a small part of the town survived, with about 110 structures still standing, including one of many once operational gold mills. Visitors can walk the deserted streets of a town that once was a bustling area of activity. Interiors remain as they were left and stocked with goods.

In 2009 and again in 2010, Bodie was scheduled to be closed, but the California state legislature was able to work out a budget compromise that enabled the state's Parks Closure Commission to allow it to remain open. As of 2012, the park is still operating, now administered by the Bodie Foundation.[37]

Climate[edit]

Taken on a stormy day at the Bodie Historic State Park, Bodie, California.

Bodie has many abandoned artifacts, such as this 1937 Chevrolet coupe.

Bodie is a rare example of the dry-summer subarctic climate (Köppen climate classificationDsc), with warm summers and long, snowy winters, and is part of USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 5.[38] Winds can sweep across the valley at close to 100 miles per hour (160 km/h)[citation needed]. Nights remain cold even through the summer, often dropping well below freezing. Bodie rivals notorious Barrow, Alaska as the locality in the United States with most nights below freezing;[39] in fact no month has ever been completely frost-free, with the fewest nights below freezing being two in August 1968, which also saw the highest minimum on record of 60 °F (15.6 °C).[40] The longest frost-free period is a mere thirty days from 20 July to 18 August of 1901, but to illustrate the vast diurnal temperature range, Bodie had as many as 98 consecutive maxima at or above 68 °F (20 °C) between June 9 and September 14 of 2007.

The harsh weather is due to a particular combination of high altitude (8,400 feet or 2,600 metres) and a very exposed plateau, with little in the way of a natural surrounding wall to protect the long, flat piece of land from the elements. Plenty of firewood was needed to keep residents warm through the long winters. Bodie is not located in a forest, so lumber had to be imported from Bridgeport, Benton, Carson City[23] or Mono Mills.[41] The winter of 1878–79 was particularly harsh and claimed the lives of many residents. On average, there are 22.7 days with 80 °F (27 °C)+ highs, 19.6 days where the high fails to rise above freezing, and 35 nights with sub-0 °F (−18 °C) lows. The record high temperature of 91 °F (33 °C) was set on July 21, 1988, while the record low of −36 °F (−38 °C) was set on February 13, 1903, which also saw the lowest maximum temperature of −4 °F (−20.0 °C).

Average annual precipitation is 11.79 inches (299 mm), with August on average being the driest month and January the wettest. There are an average of 60 days annually with measurable precipitation. The wettest calendar year was 1965 with 26.04 in (661 mm) and the driest was 2000 with 4.57 in (116 mm). The most precipitation in one month was 7.39 in (188 mm) in January 1901. The most precipitation in 24 hours was 4.57 in (116 mm) on February 12, 1895. Average annual snowfall is 93.2 inches (237 cm). The snowiest year was 1965 with 269 in (6.83 m). The most snow in one month was 97.1 in (246.6 cm) in January 1969.[42]

In fiction[edit]

Bodie was the setting for the young reader's novel Behind the Masks, by Susan Patron.[44]

Kathleen Haun's historical novel No Trees for Shade (2013) is set in Bodie in 1880.[45]

Key incidents in Chapter One of James Rollins' tenth Sigma Force novel, The Sixth Extinction (2014), span nearby Mono Lake, the secret military testing site neighboring Bodie Park, and the ghost town itself, where terrorists attack a National Park Service Ranger and details unfold about both the area's significance to the rest of the plot.[46][47]

^ abDeLyser, Dydia (December 1999). "Authenticity on the Ground: Engaging the Past in a California Ghost Town". Annals of the Association of American Geographers (Association of American Geographers) 89 (4): 602. doi:10.1111/0004-5608.00164.